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Sunday, March 25, 2018

Conflict of Interest

@riptari (Natasha Lomas) has a few questions for DeepMind's AI ethics research unit. She suggests that

"it really shouldn’t need a roster of learned academics and institutions to point out the gigantic conflict of interest in a commercial AI giant researching the ethics of its own technology’s societal impacts"

and points out that

"there’s a reason no one trusts the survey touting the amazing health benefits of a particular foodstuff carried out by the makers of said foodstuff".

As @marionnestle remarks in relation to the health claims of chocolate,

"industry-funded research tends to set up questions that will give them desirable results, and tends to be interpreted in ways that are beneficial to their interests". (via Nik Fleming)